Game Preserve

Love the games, love to see all the gamers in there having a good time.
Found out that I can bring in my cryptic «Netrunner» card game that I got for x-​mas and am not smart enough to figure out how to play it… and they will play it with you. How cool is that? (Oh that’s Tuesday nights by the way)
Also I heard they have a running pathfinder game here. yay.

I love the Game Preserve, won’t lie. I know most of the employees by name (and if they don’t know my name, they at least know my face). They’ve got a great selection of board games and puzzles and card games, and if they don’t have it, they’ll either order it for you or tell you how you can order it. Most of the time, however, they have what you’re looking for. The only time I have ever NOT found something I wanted, it was four days before Christmas for a pretty popular game (Arkham Horror; was looking for the supplement The King in Yellow), so… uh, y’know? MORE than forgivable.
They have games literally every night. L5R TCG is on Thursdays (if I recall correctly) with competitions every couple of Saturdays, they’ve got Munchkin nights, Wednesday are mini-​Pathfinder where kids 9 – 13 are introduced to tabletop roleplaying games for instance. Off the top of my head, I know they have Magic games, Flash Duel games, Pokemon games, uh… crap, I can’t think of any more, so they have TONS. They have regulars that they do weekly, and then they have days where they have other games, or days where the employees will decide to stay late to just play some of their new games and show them off.
And actually, that brings me back to the employees. They’re all friendly, they all chat, they all generally know what they’re talking about and if they don’t they’ll happily point you to another employee who would know more. Another thing I’ve discovered is that, when they get a new board game in, they actually will get a «demo» set that the employees will play and take home overnnight so that if a customer wants to ask about the game the employees will at least know the basics to talk about it and will be able to show the customer how to play it. And honestly, I think that’s really cool. I don’t know, I guess, if all employees do it, but having talked to one, I know that he at least did.
Over all, definitely welcoming, easy to access, and welcoming staff.
Also, as SL said: you get huge bottles of water or soda for a dollar, they have a downstairs where they have other gaming, and there’s plenty of restaurants nearby if you need to step out.

Pretty cool place. I came in here for jigsaw puzzles, but they have a ton of board and role-​playing games as well. According to the schedule on the wall, they do gaming events several nights per week, and while I was there a couple of dudes were playing some game at a table near the front.
The puzzle selection was very satisfying – more extensive, in fact, than my favorite shop in Chicago. They had a wide range of styles and subjects from all the usual suspects such as Educa and Ravensburger. But the real find was a couple of Pieter Brueghel puzzles from the Piatnik label, licensed by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Brueghel is my favorite painter, and while my grandparents have a large Brueghel puzzle, I’ve never seen these puzzles anywhere… except for the gift shop at the Kunsthistoriches in Vienna.
So this joint was quite a joyous treasure-​trove for that reason, but I would have liked it anyway. Great puzzle selection, lots of games, good people, very reasonable prices, and right on the square in downtown Bloomington.

Behold the friendly staff! Behold the walls of games! Behold the demo nights and mysterious «downstairs» where actual «gaming» allegedly goes on! Behold the 24 oz sodas for a dollar! Behold the yarn shop across the hallway!
You might even behold me sometimes. But not too hard. I’m shy.